Citation

Keklikoglou A, Fitzpatrick CD, Knodler MA. Transp. Res. Rec. 2018; 2672(37): 132-140.

Affiliation

1Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, University of Massachusetts, Amherst, MA Corresponding Author: Address correspondence to Cole D. Fitzpatrick: cfitzpat@umass.edu

Copyright

(Copyright © 2018, Transportation Research Board, National Research Council, National Academy of Sciences USA, Publisher SAGE Publishing)

DOI

10.1177/0361198118776519

PMID

unavailable

Abstract

Thirty-four drivers participated in a driving simulator experiment which investigated time and speed perception as it related to cognitive workload resulting from secondary tasks. Each participant drove the virtual drive twice, once with either an audio or a map task and again with no distractions as a control. Participants knew from a practice drive that they would be asked to estimate their speed and time duration of driving, thus this study used the prospective paradigm. Based on previous literature it was expected that there would be an underestimation of time and an overestimation of speed. The reverse occurred, participants overestimated time and underestimate their speed. This suggests that drivers may have found the drive unstimulating, despite the secondary tasks, and that the rural environmental may have impacted speed perception. In addition, a large group of participants, nine out of 34, crashed the virtual vehicle at a horizontal curve that was not problematic in previous simulator studies. When investigating these crashes further, it was found that drivers who crashed in the second drive had significantly worse time perception in the first drive as compared to drivers who did not crash in the second drive. This finding suggests that current time perception may be a predictor of future speed selection.

Language: en